Monday, May 5, 2008

May Day Sales Promotions in Lanzhou

Article about May Day holiday sales promotions in Lanzhou, Gansu province in Western China. May Day has traditionally been a week-long holiday but was only one day this year. Sales, mostly geared towards weddings, are still booming though...


Lanzhou: Jewelry Markets Promotes Wedding Brands

China Gold News, April 29, 2008

Reporter: Chen Wen

Translated by China Gold News Blog


Recently, the reporter has visited several large jewelry markets in Lanzhou and has come to understand that although the May Day holiday has been shortened (Ed.--Starting this year the Chinese government shortened the traditional May Day holiday from 1 week to 1 day) consumer demand has not slackened. Consumers in the recent weeks have especially showed a energetic demand for gold jewelry.


Starting in mid-April, Lanzhou’s large markets have consistently pushed continued to push sales as in years before though a bit differently this year. These promotions have been centered around weddings and “romantic’ buyers and have altered service accordingly.


Like most, Guofang Baisheng Diamond Market has a major sales period during April but has concentrated on cashing in on the May Day period rise in weddings. Shenzhen-Lanzhou Friendship Jewelry as usual from April 18 started a 23 day Shenzhen-Lanzhou Jewelry Fashion Festival; Yongchang Diamond has promoted 8 weeks of activities in its stores; Dijue has started strong promotions with wedding and love themes; Century Jewelry City has announced a series of activities to promote its normal prices; Longxi Sheng Silver and Gold Store from April 20 began a 20 day promotion, promoting may wedding and romance themed products. Gold and platinum jewelry is still priced according to daily international gold and silver prices.


The reporter understands from these markets that post-April the jewelry sales slowly reach a hot period but the sorts of sales dominating last year’s May Day holiday are not as pronounced. From the viewpoint of consumers, the upcoming period is an important wedding season. This crowd has accounted for about 80% of buyers while consumers over 35 buying for anniversaries have accounted for about 20% of buyers. From the view point of consumer sales, the Spring-Summer transition time has many business opportunities to seize. This is the goal of many jewelry markets who continue to promote sales as with last year with the week-long May Day holiday. Shenzhen-Lanzhou Friendship Jewelry’s managers say that the long vacation has been shortened but consumer demand for jewelry has not abated. Lanzhou Market’s Thousand Feet Gold prices have been between 263-278 RMB per gram while Platinum has been about 428 RMB per gram. “Although gold prices have pulled back a bit customer demand is being driven by a broad trend amongst diverse products. For this reason, we believe the sales jump is a mainstream one despite the shortening of the former holiday,” the managers stated.


(Ed. Note: Other articles note similar wedding promotions in Jewelers around the country).

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